Arkansas Blog

A victory for speech

A federal appeals court has dealt a blow to FCC efforts to penalize even fleeting and inadvertent broadcast of profanity on the airwaves, a decision that could mean a much broader support for free speech on the air. You gotta love the use of the prez and Dick "GFY" Cheney to make the point.

Adopting an argument made by lawyers for NBC, the judges then cited examples in which Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney had used the same language that would be penalized under the policy. Mr. Bush was caught on videotape last July using a common vulgarity that the commission finds objectionable in a conversation with Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain. Three years ago, Mr. Cheney was widely reported to have muttered an angry obscene version of “get lost” to Senator Patrick Leahy on the floor of the United States Senate.